Polymorph and morphology of CaCO_3 in relation to precipitation conditions in a bubbling system

Simulating the typical carbonation step in a mineral CO_2 sequestration, precipitated calcium carbonate(PCC) was prepared by bubbling CO_2 gas into a rich Ca solution. These carbonation reactions were conducted at three p H ranges, namely 10.0–9.0, 9.0–8.0, and 8.0–7.0, in which temperature and CO_2 flow rate are additional experimental variables. The PCC obtained in experiments was examined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR)and X-ray diffraction(XRD). It was found that supersaturation determined by p H value and flow rate of CO_2 has significant influence on polymorph of PCC. Vaterite was preferably formed at high supersaturation, while dissolution of metastable vaterite and crystallization of calcite occurred at low supersaturation. High temperature is a critical factor for the formation of aragonite. At 70 °C, vaterite, calcite and aragonite were observed to coexist in PCC because transformation from vaterite to aragonite via calcite occurred at this temperature. Scanning electron microscopy(SEM) technology was performed on prepared PCC, and various morphologies consistent with polymorphs were observed.

Effects of processing parameters on microstructure of semi-solid slurry of AZ91D magnesium alloy prepared by gas bubbling

The semi-solid slurry of AZ91 D magnesium alloy was prepared by gas bubbling process.The effect of processing parameters,including gas flow rate,cooling rate and stirring end temperature,on microstructure of AZ91 D semi-solid slurry was investigated.With increasing the gas flow rate from 0 to 5 L/min,the average size of primary α-Mg particles decreases from 119.1 to77.2μm and the average shape factor increases continuously from 0.1 to 0.596.The formation of non-dendritic primary α-Mg particles during gas bubbling is the result of combined effects of dendrite fragmentation and copious nucleation.With increasing the cooling rate from 3.6 to 14.6℃/min,the average particle size of primary α-Mg phase decreases from 105.0 to 68.1μm while the average shape factor peaks at 9.1℃/min.Both high and low cooling rates can induce dendritic growth of primary α-Mg particles.Changing the stirring end temperature from 590 to 595℃ has little effect on the average size and shape factor of primary α-Mg particles in AZ91 D semi-solid slurry.The insensitivity of semi-solid microstructures to the stirring end temperature is attributed to the sufficient quantity of primary particles formed in the melt.

Investigation of bubbles escape behavior from low basicity mold flux for high-Mn high-Al steels using 3D X-ray microscope

During the continuous casting process of high-Mn high-Al steels,various types of gases such as Ar need to escape through the top of the mold.In which,the behavior of bubbles traversing the liquid slag serves as a restrictive link,closely associated with viscosity and the thickness of liquid slag.In contrast to two-dimensional surface observation,three-dimensional(3D)analysis method can offer a more intuitive,accurate,and comprehensive information.Therefore,this study employs a 3D X-ray microscope(3D-XRM)to obtained spatial distribution and 3D morphological characteristics of residual bubbles in mold flux under different basicity of liquid slag,different temperatures,and different holding times.The results indicate that as basicity of slag increases from 0.52 to 1.03,temperature increases from 1423 to 1573 K,the viscosity of slag decreases,the floating rate of bubbles increases.In addition,when holding time increases from 10 to 30 s,the bubbles floating distance increases,and the volume fraction and average equivalent sphere diameter of the bubbles solidified in the mold flux gradually decreases.In one word,increasing the basicity,temperature,and holding time leading to an increase in the removal rate of bubbles especially for the large.These findings of bubbles escape behavior provide valuable insights into optimizing low basicity mold flux for high-Mn high-Al steels.

Applicability of Markov chain-based stochastic model for bubbling fluidized beds

A Markov chain-based stochastic model （MCM） is developed to simulate the movement of particles in a 2D bubbling fluidized bed （BFB）. The state spaces are determined by the discretized physical cells of the bed, and the transition probability matrix is directly calculated by the results of a discrete element method （DEM） simulation. The Markov property of the BFB is discussed by the comparison results calculated from both static and dynamic transition probability matrices. The static matrix is calculated based on the Markov chain while the dynamic matrix is calculated based on the memory property of the particle movement. Results show that the difference in the trends of particle movement between the static and dynamic matrix calculation is very small. Besides, the particle mixing curves of the MCM and DEM have the same trend and similar numerical values, and the details show the time averaged characteristic of the MCM and also expose its shortcoming in describing the instantaneous particle dynamics in the BFB.

A pilot-scale jet bubbling reactor for wet flue gas desulfurization with pyrolusite

MnO2 in pyrolusite can react with SO2 in flue gas and obtain by-product MnSO4· H2O. A pilot scale jet bubbling reactor was applied in this work. Different factors affecting both SO2 absorption efficiency and Mn2^＋ extraction rate have been investigated, these factors include temperature of inlet gas flue, ration of liquid/solid mass flow rate（ L/S）, pyrolusite grade, and SO2 concentration in the inlet flue gas. In the meantime, the procedure of purification of absorption liquid was also discussed. Experiment results indicated that the increase of temperature from 30 to 70 K caused the increase of SO2 absorption efficiency from 81.4% to 91.2%. And when SO2 concentration in the inlet flue gas increased from 500 to 3000 ppm, SO2 absorption efficiency and Mn2^＋ extraction rate decreased from 98.1% to 82.2% and from 82.8% to 61.7%, respectively. The content of MnO2 in pyrolusite had a neglectable effect on SO2, absorption efficiency. Low L/S was good for both removal of SO2 and Mn2^＋ extraction. The absorption liquid was filtrated and purified to remove Si, Mg, Ca, Fe, Al and heavy metals, last product MnSO4· H2O was obtained which quality could reach China GB1622-86, the industry grade standards.

CFD simulation of bubbling and collapsing characteristics in a gas-solid fluidized bed

Computational Fluid Dynamics （CFD） has become an alternative method to experiments for understanding the fluid dynamics of multiphase flow. A two-fluid model, which contains additional terms in both the gas- and solid-phase momentum equations, is used to investigate the fluidization quality in a fluidized bed. A case study for quartz sand with a density of 2,660 kg/m^3 and a diameter of 500 μm, whose physical property is similar to a new kind of catalyst for producing clean fuels through the residue fluid catalytic cracking process, is simulated in a two-dimensional fluidized bed with 0.57 m width and 1.00 m height. Transient bubbling and collapsing characteristics are numerically investigated in the platform of CFX 4.4 by integrating user-defined Fortran subroutines. The results show that the fluidization and collapse process is in fair agreement with the classical theory of Geldart B classification, but the collapse time is affected by bubbles at the interface between the dense phase and freeboard.

Bubble Formation in Non-Newtonian Fluids Using Laser Image Measurement System

A self-developed laser image measurement system was established to study the behavior of bubble for- mation at a single orifice in non-Newtonian polyacrylamide(PAAm)solutions.Images of bubbles were captured by a CCD camera and volumes of bubbles were digitally analyzed online.The effects of rheological property of PAAm solution,orifice,reservoir,and gas flowrate on bubble formation were studied experimentally.It is found that the volume of bubble increases with the concentration of PAAm solution,the diameter of the orifice,and the gas flowrate,respectively,whereas little effect of reservoir is observed in experiments.

Experimental determination of gas holdup and volumetric mass transfer coefficient in a jet bubbling reactor

The hydrodynamics and mass transfer characteristics of a lab-scale jet bubbling reactor(JBR)including the gas holdup,volumetric mass transfer coefficient and specific interfacial area were assessed experimentally investigating the influence of temperature,pH and superficial gas velocity.The reactor diameter and height were 11 and 30 cm,respectively.It was equipped with a single sparger,operating at atmospheric pressure,20 and 40℃,and two pH values of 3 and 6.The height of the liquid was 23 cm,while the superficial gas velocity changed within 0.010-0.040 m·s^(-1)range.Experiments were conducted with pure oxygen as the gas phase and saturated lime solution as the liquid phase.The liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient was determined under unsteady-state oxygen absorption in a saturated lime solution.The gas holdup was calculated based on the liquid height change,while the specific interfacial area was obtained by a physical method based on the bubble size distribution(BSD)in different superficial gas velocities.The results indicated that at the same temperature but different pH,the gas holdup variation was negligible,while the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient at the pH value of 6 was higher than that at the pH=3.At a constant pH but different temperatures,the gas holdup and the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficients at 40℃were higher than that of the same at 20℃.A reasonable and appropriate estimation of the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient(kla)in a pilot-scale JBR was provided which can be applied to the design and scale-up of JBRs.

Numerical investigation for the suitable choice of bubble diameter correlation for EMMS/bubbling drag model

Mesoscale bubbles exist inherently in bubbling fluidized beds and hence should be considered in the constitutive modeling of the drag force.The energy minimization multiscale bubbling(EMMS/bubbling)drag model takes the effects of mesoscale structures(i.e.,bubbles)into the modeling of drag coefficient and thus improves the coarse-grid simulation of bubbling and turbulent fluidized beds.However,its dependence on the bubble diameter correlation has not been thoroughly investigated.The hydrodynamic disparity between homogeneous and heterogeneous fluidization is accounted for by the heterogeneity index,H_(d),which can be affected by choice of bubble diameter correlation.How this choice of bubble diameter correlation influences the model prediction calls for further fundamental research.This article incorporated seven different bubble diameter correlations into EMMS/bubbling drag model and studied their effects on H_(d).The performance of these correlations has been compared with the correlation used previously by EMMS/bubbling drag model.We found that some of the correlations predicted lower Hd by order of a magnitude than the correlation used by the original EMMS/bubbling drag.Based on such analysis,we proposed a modification in the EMMS drag model for bubbling and turbulent fluidized beds.A computational fluid dynamics(CFD)simulation using two-fluid model with the modified EMMS/bubbling drag model was performed for two bubbling and one turbulent fluidized beds.Voidage distribution,time averaged solid concentration and axial solid concentration profiles were studied and compared with the previous version of the EMMS/bubbling drag model and experimental data.We found that the right choice of bubble diameter correlations can significantly improve the results for CFD simulations.

Effects of System Pressure and Heat Flux on Bubble Nucleation and Growth

Characteristics of bubble nucleation and growth are critical for its application. It is affected by several factors including viscosity, surface tension and temperature. However, the effect of pressure on bubble nucleation and growth has been underreported, although it processes significant effect on above characteristics. In this work, a micro copper electrode is etched on a slab covered with copper to produce bubble on the surface by current input. The nucleation time of bubble is measured under different heat flux and system pressures. The nucleation and growth processes are recorded with a high speed camera in order to discuss the effects of heat flux and system pressure on bubble characteristics. The experiment results indicate that the micro electrode with higher heat flux produces more thermal energy, which makes the time of bubble nucleation shorter and the speed of bubble growth faster. Higher system pressure causes the increase of the critical nucleation temperature and also baffles the bubble nucleation and growth. Bubble growth includes the stages of rapid growth and dynamic equilibrium, with the speed being from fast to slow. In the former part of rapid growth, heat flux plays a dominant role in bubble growth. While the effect of system pressure on bubble growth becomes significant in the latter part of rapid growth. Both the nucleation time and bubble growth agree well with the theoretical analysis. The obtained results help to accurately control bubble nucleation and growth required in different application.

Isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium for methyldichlorosilane- dimethyldichlorosilane-benzene system

The elucidation of vapor-liquid equilibrium (VLE) of the halogenated silane was necessary for the production of silicon derivatives, especially for methylvinyldichlorosilane, due to the lack of the relevant reports. Isobaric VLE for the system methyldichlorosilane-dimethyldichlorosilane-benzene and isobaric VLE of the three binary systems were measured with a new pump-ebulliometer at the pressure of 101.325 kPa. These binary compositions of the equilibrium vapor were calculated according to the Q function of molar excess Gibbs energy by the indirect method and the resulted VLE data agreed well with the thermo-dynamic consistency. Moreover, the experimental data were correlated with the Wilson, NRTL, Margules and van Laar equations by means of the least-squares fit, the acquired optimal interaction parameters were fitted to experimental vapor-liquid equilibrium data for binary systems. The binary parameters of Wilson equation were also used to calculate the bubble point temperature and the vapor phase composition for the ternary mixtures without any additional adjustment. The predicted vapor-liquid equilibrium for the ternary system was in a good agreement with the experimental results. The VLE of binary and multilateral systems provided essential theory for the production of the halogenated silane.

Improved Correlation for the Volume of Bubble Formed in Air-Water System

In order to address the bubble formation and movement in air-water two-phase flow,single bubble rising in stagnant water is experimentally studied by digital image processing.Bubbles are released individually from the submerged orifices with different diameters(1.81 mm,2.07 mm,2.98 mm,3.92 mm)at different detachment frequency.Images are recorded by a high-speed video camera and processed by digital image processing technique. The factors impacting the formed volume of bubble are discussed.The experimental results showed that a threshold of gas flow rate(400 mm 3 ·s- 1)divides the bubble formation into two regimes:the constant volume regime and the growing volume regime.Especially for the growing volume regime,the surface tension is taken into account.The bubble volume is consisted of two parts:the surface tension impacting part and the gas volume flow rate impacting part.An improved correlation for bubble volume prediction is developed for the two regimes and better coincidence with the experiment data than the previous models is obtained.

Performance evaluation of a bubble generator and a bubble separator designed for the gas removal system of a small thorium molten salt reactor

In the present study, a bubble generator and a bubble separator were designed and evaluated for an independent off-gas removal system of a small thorium molten salt reactor(TMSR) with reference to the design of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory(ONRL). The bubble generator employed a Venturi tube as its main body owing to its simplicity and highly reliable structure. A centrifugal separator was used as the bubble separator, taking advantage of the kinetic energy of fluid to create a centrifugal force to separate gas bubbles from the mixture flow. Both the bubble generator and the separator were demonstrated to have good potential to meet the performance requirements of an off-gas removal system for a small TMSR. With water and air as the working fluids, for the final designs of the two key pieces of equipment, a liquid flow rate exceeding 15 m3·h-1 can essentially make their performance meet the requirements of the off-gas removal system in terms of the average size of the generated bubbles and gas separation efficiency.

An analysis approach of mass and energy balance in a dual-reactor circulating fluidized bed system

An analysis approach considering gas-solids hydrodynamics,reaction kinetics and reacting species nonuniformity together in a dual-reactor system is presented for better understanding its mass and energy balance.It was achieved by a 3-dimensional comprehensive hydrodynamics and reaction model for the dual-reactor system,which was developed from the successfully verified 3-dimensional comprehensive combustion model for one circulating fluidized bed(CFB)system(Xu and Cheng,2019).The developed model and analysis approach was successfully used on a 1 MW circulating fluidized bed–bubbling fluidized bed(CFB-BFB)dual-reactor system.Results showed the sensible and chemical energy between two reactors as well as the energy distributions in each reactor were balanced and they agreed well with the experimental measurements.The analysis approach indicated energy balance had a close relationship with the mass transfer in the CFB-BFB dual-reactor system.It may be applied in a design and operation optimization for a dual-reactor system.

Bubble translation driven by pulsation in a double-bubble system

The pulsation and translation of two cavitation bubbles are studied numerically in sound field. The results show that bubbles' pulsation driven by the sound makes them translate. Different pulsations lead to different translations. Two bubbles will be mutually attractive to each other if they pulsate in phase, while they will be repulsive if out of phase. Furthermore,the secondary Bjerknes force for small phase difference is attractive, and it becomes repulsive for other phase differences up to π phase difference due to the nonlinear effect, although the attractive strength between two bubbles is much larger than the repulsive strength. Finally, one bubble pulsation and the other bubble stationary make the bubbles repel each other.

Formation dynamics and size prediction of bubbles for slurry system in T-shape microchannel

The bubble formation dynamics and size manipulation in the slurry of polystyrene microspheres in the microfluidic T-junction were visually investigated by a high-speed camera.Based on the evolution of the bubble neck with time,the formation process of bubbles is divided into three stages:filling,squeezing and pinch-off.The particle concentration has an obvious effect on the squeezing stage,while less impact on the filling and pinch-off stages.In the squeezing stage,the evolution of the dimensionless minimum neck width of bubbles with time could be described by a power-law relationship.The increase of the particle concentration or continuous phase flow rate could lead to the increase of body flow of the continuous phase and the enhancement of the squeezing force acted on the bubble neck,correspondingly,the power-law index a in the squeezing stage enlarges.Moreover,the bubble size increases with the increase of the gas phase flow rate and the decrease of the particle concentration and continuous phase flow rate.However,the effect of the particle concentration on the bubble size weakens with the increase of the continuous phase flow rate.In addition,a new prediction correlation of the bubble size for the slurry system in a T-shape microchannel was proposed with good prediction accuracy.

Bubble size measurement in three-phase system using photograph technology

A special experiment setup was designed to observe the interaction between bubbles and particle in flotation cell and to analyze the bubble characteristics such as bubble size, distribution and bubble-loading efficiency. Bubbles in water-gas system and three-phase system were measured. The results indicate that with the current setup the bubbles as small as 10 μm can be easily distinguished. The average size of the bubbles generated under the given conditions in two-phase system is 410 μm at frother concentration of 0.004%, which is in good correspondence with the results of other works. The effect of frother on bubble size was probed. Increasing frother concentration from 0 to 0.004% causes a reduction of bubble size from 700 to 400 μm. The bubble loading efficiency was reported. The result indicates that the fine particle is more easily entrapped than the coarse particle. Some factors, which have effect on measurement accuracy were discussed. The aeration speed has a significant effect on the accuracy of results, if it surpasses 30 mL/s, and the image becomes unclear due to the entrapment of fine particle. Another factor, which can affect observing results, is the sampling position. At a wrong sampling position, the images become unclear.

Computational study of bubble coalescence/break-up behaviors and bubble size distribution in a 3-D pressurized bubbling gas-solid fluidized bed of Geldart A particles

A computational study was carried out on bubble dynamic behaviors and bubble size distributions in a pressurized lab-scale gas-solid fluidized bed of Geldart A particles.High-resolution 3-D numerical simulations were performed using the two-fluid model based on the kinetic theory of granular flow.A finegrid,which is in the range of 3–4 particle diameters,was utilized in order to capture bubble structures explicitly without breaking down the continuum assumption for the solid phase.A novel bubble tracking scheme was developed in combination with a 3-D detection and tracking algorithm(MS3 DATA)and applied to detect the bubble statistics,such as bubble size,location in each time frame and relative position between two adjacent time frames,from numerical simulations.The spatial coordinates and corresponding void fraction data were sampled at 100 Hz for data analyzing.The bubble coalescence/break-up frequencies and the daughter bubble size distribution were evaluated by using the new bubble tracking algorithm.The results showed that the bubble size distributed non-uniformly over cross-sections in the bed.The equilibrium bubble diameter due to bubble break-up and coalescence dynamics can be obtained,and the bubble rise velocity follows Davidson’s correlation closely.Good agreements were obtained between the computed results and that predicted by using the bubble break-up model proposed in our previous work.The computational bubble tracking method showed the potential of analyzing bubble motions and the coalescence and break-up characteristics based on time series data sets of void fraction maps obtained numerically and experimentally.

Comparative analysis on gas–solid drag models in MFIX-DEM simulations of bubbling fluidized bed

In this study,the open-source software MFIX-DEM simulations of a bubbling fluidized bed(BFB)are applied to assess nine drag models according to experimental and direct numerical simulation(DNS)results.The influence of superficial gas velocity on gas–solid flow is also examined.The results show that according to the distribution of time-averaged particle axial velocity in y direction,except for Wen–Yu and Tenneti–Garg–Subramaniam(TGS),other drag models are consistent with the experimental and DNS results.For the TGS drag model,the layer-by-layer movement of particles is observed,which indicates the particle velocity is not correctly predicted.The time domain and frequency domain analysis results of pressure drop of each drag model are similar.It is recommended to use the drag model derived from DNS or fine grid computational fluid dynamics–discrete element method(CFD-DEM)data first for CFD-DEM simulations.For the investigated BFB,the superficial gas velocity less than 0.9 m·s^(-1) should be adopted to obtain normal hydrodynamics.

Stability-driven Structure Evolution:Exploring the Intrinsic Similarity Between Gas-Solid and Gas-Liquid Systems

As the core of the Energy-Minimization Multi-Scale(EMMS) approach,the so-called stability condi-tion has been proposed to reflect the compromise between different dominant mechanisms and believed to be in-dispensable for understanding the complex nature of gas-solid fluidization systems.This approach was recently ex-tended to the study of gas-liquid bubble columns.In this article,we try to analyze the intrinsic similarity between gas-solid and gas-liquid systems by using the EMMS approach.First,the model solution spaces for the two systems are depicted through a unified numerical solution strategy,so that we are able to find three structural hierarchies in the EMMS model for gas-solid systems.This may help to understand the roles of cluster diameter correlation and stability condition.Second,a common characteristic of gas-solid and gas-liquid systems can be found by comparing the model solutions for the two systems,albeit structural parameters and stability criteria are specific in each system:two local minima of the micro-scale energy dissipation emerges simultaneously in the solution space of structure parameters,reflecting the compromise of two different dominant mechanisms.They may share an equal value at a critical condition of operating conditions,and the global minimum may shift from one to the other when the oper-ating condition changes.As a result,structure parameters such as voidage or gas hold-up exhibit a jump change due to this shift,leading to dramatic structure variation and hence regime transition of these systems.This demonstrates that it is the stability condition that drives the structure variation and system evolution,which may be the intrinsic similarity of gas-solid and gas-liquid systems.